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HP, Lenovo Bring Out Dual-Core Business PCs

HP and Lenovo are among the PC makers rolling out business desktops armed with Intel Corp.s new dual-core Pentium D processor and accompanying chip set.

Intel launched the new technology at an event Thursday in San Francisco. The desktop processor is the second dual-core desktop chip from the Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker, and it comes less than a week before rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. launches its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core PC chip.

AMD already released its dual-core Opteron server processor. Intel will start releasing its server chips with dual-core capabilities starting at the end of the year.

Hewlett-Packard Co., of Palo Alto, Calif., is rolling out a new entry-level workstation and business desktop featuring the new chip and 945G chip set. The xw4300 workstation will run on both the single-core and dual-core Pentiums.

The workstation will run the dual-core Pentium D 840, with speeds of up to 3.2GHz, and the single-core Pentium 4 chips, with frequencies of between 2.8GHz and 3.8GHz.

It also will offer up to 8GB of memory and integrated Serial ATA capabilities. In addition, it will support 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Microsoft Corp.s Windows XP Professional operating system.

The Compaq dc7600 Business Desktop PC will come with SATA hard drives and DDR2 memory. It will run on the dual- or single-core Pentiums or Celeron D processor. It also will ship with an embedded security chip that will meet the requirements of the Trusted Computing Groups Trusted Platform Module 2.1 specification. HPs ProtectTools Embedded Security software will offer additional security as an option.

For its part, Lenovo Group Ltd. will unveil its latest ThinkCentre desktop models, the M52 and A52. They represent the first product announcement by Lenovo, less than a month after closing on the $1.75 billion deal for IBMs PC business.

Dilip Bhatia, program director of the worldwide ThinkCentre brand for Lenovo, said the upgraded desktops were part of IBMs plans before the purchase. "This was already on the roadmap," Bhatia said. "Obviously, the press release wont say IBM, but Lenovo. But for our customers, its business as usual."

Bhatia said the new ThinkCentres will be available in mid-June, and will feature the companys ThinkVantage and Embedded Security Subsystem. Models later in the year also will offer Intels Active Management Technology, which offers recovery and protection capabilities to networked systems, even if they are offline.

Bhatia said demand among PC users for dual core primarily is in the consumer and workstation spaces, but he expects that demand among corporate users will grow later this year and next as PC applications tuned for dual-core processors are released.

Dell Computer Corp., of Round Rock, Texas, will outfit its Precision 380 workstation with the new Pentium D chip, a spokesperson said. Dell in April rolled out the Precision 380, which also is powered by Intels Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, the first chip from Intel to offer dual-core capabilities.

On the consumer side, Dell released a high-performance desktop, the Precision 9100, which offers the dual-core Pentium chip and 945P Express chip set. The PC was built using the BTX chassis design, which puts the hottest running components of the computer—such as the chip and graphics cards—in the middle, where they can be cooled by a front-to-back air flow, leading to quieter and more energy-efficient systems.

Dell also rolled out an enhanced Dimension XPS, which along with the new Intel technology also offers up to 1.5TB of storage through three SATA 2 hard drives, a spokesperson said.

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